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.She wondered how to proceed, for it didn’t seem like Brack’thal would listen to any reasoning, and she hated the thought of his demise at that time, both because of the implications to Ravel’s standing and because, on a practical level, Brack’thal’s work with the elementals, however the fool was managing it, was proving quite valuable here at the all-important forge.Tiago Baenre stepped past her.“Would that not be a wondrous thing?” he said loudly, commanding attention.“Ah, Ravel’s rothé makes his appearance,” Brack’thal shouted back.Tiago laughed it off, resisting the urge to fling his sword into the mage’s forehead—and it would not have been a difficult throw.He walked steadily toward Brack’thal.As he neared, so that only Brack’thal could hear, he whispered, “You cannot win.”Brack’thal puffed his chest out defiantly.“Berellip stands with Ravel,” Tiago said, and the mage deflated almost instantly.He looked past Tiago to Berellip, who, understanding what Tiago had just related, nodded solemnly to confirm it.Brack’thal’s eye twitched, and he licked his lips as he turned his gaze from Berellip to Tiago and then to Ravel, who was slowly approaching, a smile slowly widening.Ravel nodded left and nodded right, and from the shadows came the spellspinners, staves and wands in hand, fingers rolling eagerly around them.“Not one of those you thought your ally will stand with you against Berellip,” Tiago quietly informed Brack’thal.The mage spun on Berellip.“Sister!” he implored her.“Dismiss your pets back to the forges,” she ordered.“We have much work to do.”“Sister!”“It is ended!” Berellip roared at him, and she came forward forcefully, even throwing a spell before her, one that smote a minor elemental with a burst of water, and the creature dissipated into a blast of fog with an angry hiss.“Eight legs?” she asked Brack’thal, and the blood drained from his face, for that particular reference loomed as the worst curse any drow might hear.Berellip had just informed the mage that his fate lay among Yerrininae’s band!Brack’thal, clearly caught and overwhelmed by the turn of events, held up his hands unthreateningly and began complying, dismissing his pets to the various forges.By the time Berellip and Ravel reached him, only the largest remained.Brack’thal looked to it, then back to Berellip, and fell on his knees before her.“Kill me, I beg,” he said.“It will not be quick,” she promised wickedly, and he accepted that with an eager nod, for better to be tortured to death than to be transformed into a wretched drider!“Sister,” Ravel intervened, and Berellip, Brack’thal, and Tiago all turned to regard him curiously.“Spare him, I beg of you.”It seemed like every creature in the room held its breath.“He is valuable.His work here has been beyond reproach,” Ravel explained to Berellip’s stunned expression.“Such weakness,” she whispered back, hardly believing her ears.“You would show mercy?”“Only if Brack’thal declares allegiance to me,” Ravel stated, and he struck a superior pose, towering over his kneeling brother.“Only if this is ended, by decree, by surrender, and I am named here and now the Elderboy of House Xorlarrin, with Brack’thal afforded all rights as Secondboy.”“I would rather die,” Brack’thal replied.“Would you rather sprout six extra legs?” Tiago remarked.“Would you?” Ravel asked, referring to Brack’thal’s claim and not Tiago’s threat.“Then your claim of your powers returning rings hollow in your own ears.”He said it loudly, so that all around could hear, so that those spellspinners he knew had recently come to consider siding with Brack’thal would hear.Berellip silently congratulated Ravel.He had played this perfectly, for either way, Brack’thal was caught.If he didn’t agree and was thus killed, he would be admitting that his claims were false, and so Ravel would secure the spellspinners in his entourage once more.And if he did agree, he would be bound by his words.It was not often that drow males flipped their titles, as Ravel had demanded, but it was not unprecedented, and such a pact was surely binding.If Brack’thal agreed, any future action he took against Ravel would be construed as an affront to House Xorlarrin, invoking the wrath of Matron Zeerith.“Well?” Berellip prompted
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